ndition of the ancient Britons, fifty-five years
before the birth of Our Saviour, when the Romans, under their great
General, Julius Caesar, were masters of all the rest of the known world.
Julius Caesar had then just conquered Gaul; and hearing, in Gaul, a good
deal about the opposite Island with the white cliffs, and about the
bravery of the Britons who inhabited it--some of whom had been fetched
over to help the Gauls in the war against him--he resolved, as he was so
near, to come and conquer Britain next.

So, Julius Caesar came sailing over to this Island of ours, with eighty
vessels and twelve thousand men. And he came from the French coast
between Calais and Boulogne, 'because thence was the shortest passage
into Britain;' just for the same reason as our steam-boats now take the
same track, every day. He expected to conquer Britain easily: but it was
not such easy work as he supposed--for the bold Britons fought most
bravely; and, what with not having his horse-soldiers with him (for they
had been driven back by a storm), and what with having some of his
vessels dashed to pieces by a high tide after they were drawn ashore, he
ran great risk of being totally defeated. However, for once that the
bold Britons beat him, he beat them twice; though not so soundly but that
he was very glad to accept their proposals of peace, and go away.

But, in the spring of the next year, he came back; this time, with eight
hundred vessels and thirty thousand men. The British tribes chose, as
their general-in-chief, a Briton, whom the Romans in their Latin language
called CASSIVELLAUNUS, but whose British name is supposed to have been
CASWALLON. A brave general he was, and well he and his soldiers fought
the Roman army! So well, that whenever in that war the Roman soldiers
saw a great cloud of dust, and heard the rattle of the rapid British
chariots, they trembled in their hearts. Besides a number of smaller
battles, there was a battle fought near Canterbury, in Kent; there was a
battle fought near Chertsey, in Surrey; there was a battle fought near a
marshy little town in a wood, the capital of that part of Britain which
belonged to CASSIVELLAUNUS, and which was probably near what is now Saint
Albans, in Hertfordshire. However, brave CASSIVELLAUNUS had the worst of
it, on the whole; though he and his men always fought like lions. As the
other British chiefs were jealous of him, and were always quarrelling
with him, and with